James Bateman

Born a nobleman at Redivals, Bury, England, James Bateman (1811 – 1897) wrote extensively on the subject of orchids and became one of the early developers of orchid culture. He is particularly known for his significant contributions to orchid botany and his lectures on the subject greatly increased the plant’s popularity in England. Encouraged by his father to pursue his interest in horticulture, as a young man of 23 he hired a botanical collector to go to Guyana in search of orchids and later sponsored expeditions to Mexico and South America that enabled collectors to gather rare specimens. He pioneered “cool orchid cultivation” a process that allowed the Odontoglossum to be cultivated in England, duplicating the cool arid climate of the cloud forests in Central and South America where these exotic flowers are found. His publication A Monograph of Odontoglossum (1864 – 1874) contains 30 large scale hand-colored lithographs of this remarkable and delicate genus.